The Schoolyard Bully and "Assault Weapons"

by Jeff Quinn

September 15, 2004

Most of us can relate to the schoolyard bully
in one way or another. We either were abused by this individual or knew
someone who was. Perhaps you yourself were the schoolyard bully in times past.
Anyway, most of us are familiar enough with the type that we can use him as a
good analogy to our government.

We can imagine going out on the playground as a child to
enjoy a break from the boredom of learning the proper order of the alphabet,
with or without the little tune, or of reading about places which we would
never see, even if we cared to. Heading out on the playground for our precious
few minutes of fun, we can imagine being suddenly confronted by this snaggle-toothed
goon, getting punched in the eye and relieved of our lunch money. If this
happened only once, it would be bad enough; but you know the type. Bullies
don’t operate that way. If they get you once, and get away with it, they
continue for as long as they can.
Every day, the same scenario plays out: You head out on the
playground, minding your own business, but are accosted by the bully. After
awhile, you just hand him the lunch money. You adapt. You learn to try to
carry extra money in your shoe, hoping that he doesn’t know that you have
it. You start to feel as if you have somehow gotten over on him, because you
got to keep a little bit of your money for yourself. You are glad that he
doesn’t hit you every time anymore. Sometimes he just takes the money and
lets you run away.

After ten years of the same thing, let’s imagine that the
bully stops assaulting you. He is still there, with the threat and power to
start up again at any time, but now he just glares at you and lets you pass
by, if you will ask his permission. Suddenly, you feel relieved; even
victorious! Never mind that for ten long years, this scum beat, robbed, and
humiliated you…..every single day. You are just grateful that it is over; so
grateful that you thank him. As you approach his position, you ask his
permission to continue on your way, and thank him for letting you pass without
harm.

Kids deal with stuff like this all the time.

As gun owners, we also deal with it every day, without
realizing it. Our government has for the past ten years banned us from
owning the weapons that we want, for whatever reason. Calling them
"Assault Rifles", making these inanimate objects seem evil, and
banning the manufacture of new "high capacity" magazines. The
government set the arbitrary limit of ten rounds for our magazines. Before
1994, "high capacity magazines" were those that held 100 rounds,
such as the excellent Beta Mag. Thirty round AR magazines were normal
capacity, as were fifteen-shot pistol magazines. It did not matter at all that
magazine capacity has never played a role in the success or failure of a
criminal act. The government declared them to be evil, so they were banned.
Like the lunch money in our shoe in the analogy above, we were happy that we
could keep our "pre-ban" magazines, along with flash suppressors and
bayonet lugs. Because things such as flash suppressors and bayonet lugs looked
evil to some elitist thugs in Washington, they were banned. It wasn’t that
anyone had ever been bayoneted in the commission of a crime, or that evil had
prevailed because the criminal's flash signature from an AR-15 had foiled his
capture.
Let us be clear as to the reason for the "Assault Weapons
Ban" in the first place. The government was attempting to ban an entire
class of rifles. They stole the term "assault rifle", using it to
declare these legal rifles as an evil that must be eliminated from possession
by common citizens. The term was used not only to polarize those who
owned no guns against gun owners, but to divide gun owners, turning the
"reasonable" deer hunter against the Neanderthals who wanted to own
such evil weapons. They succeeded. In their narrow-minded reasoning, if they
banned bayonet lugs, pistol grips, flash suppressors, and "high
capacity" magazines, they could eliminate an entire class of legal
semi-automatic rifles.

When the gun manufacturers complied with the law, leaving
off the lugs and flash suppressors, and shipping the guns with compliant
magazines, the liberal elitist government officials cried "Foul!",
condemning the gun makers as those who circumvented the law, when they were
only complying with the law.

Anyway, after ten years of living under the "Assault
Weapons Ban", it was allowed to go away by a few good men in our Congress
who blocked the bill to renew the ban from coming to a vote. If it had come to
a vote, it stood a good chance of renewal, because of the many elected
representatives who are still waiting on their backbone transplant. Many would
have voted to renew the ban who claim to be the gun owner’s friend. Keep in
mind that the bill was passed into law in 1994 by many of these same
legislators.

Now, like the little kid on the playground, gun owners are
grateful that the bill was allowed to sunset. We are thankful to the bully for
not hitting us in the eye anymore. We still have to ask his permission to buy
a gun, and are thankful when we quickly pass a government background check. We
feel privileged to get our "permit" to carry a weapon, just like the
little kid being granted permission to go play without being assaulted.
The carry permit is our permission from the bully to exercise our God-given
right to self protection. We still must ask his blessing to purchase, carry,
and use our guns, but we are grateful to him for no longer prohibiting us from
owning the very same firearms and accessories that he stole from us for ten
years.

The bully is still hitting us in the eye, we just don‘t
feel it anymore.

Jeff Quinn

Got something to say about this article? Want to agree (or
disagree) with it? Click the following link to go to the GUNBlast Feedback Page.